Declared Independence: Aug. 31, 1991
Population: 20,322,000
Area: 172,700
Capital and Largest City: Tashkent (pop. 2,094,000)
Main Industry Agriculture (cotton)
Ethnic Composition: Uzbek 71%, Russian 8%, Tajik 5%, other 16%
Uzbekistan is the most populous of the five Central Asian states and the only one that shares a border with the other four. It is a predominantly Moslem state.
Uzbekistan is the world’s third largest producer of cotton and the major source of the crop for the former Soviet Union.
The capital, Taskent was destroyed by an earthquake in 1964 and people from all over the Soviet Union joined in the effort to rebuild the city.
A third of Uzbekistan’s population now lives in poverty, and this segment seems likely to grow. Industry, given the long dependence on cotton, is largely undeveloped. Uzbekistan does account for a third of the gold mined in the former Soviet Union, but the mining processes have been environmentally harmful.
